Printed circuit boards (hereinafter, PCBs) are the backbone of almost every electronic device. Modern consumer electronics, the automotive industry, medical devices, and industrial equipment of all varieties are controlled to an increasing degree by electronic circuits, which in turn require development of tens of thousands of new boards every year. This trend will grow as time-to-market and innovation have become major competitive advantages. Despite this trend, to date there are currently no efficient tools to assist production of reliable PCB prototypes which are required during the validation stages of a new product. In the course of product development, a board designer will typically order 2-3 prototype versions to validate and test the electronic performance of a device. Such prototypes are usually produced either by local small-medium PCB manufacturers or by Far East manufacturers (mainly China). They offer relatively fast delivery depending on the board complexity, which is mainly related to the number of layers and the circuit density. Such prototypes can be very expensive and may take a few weeks to manufacture. Several attempts to deliver prototype manufacturing solutions such as CNC or Laser based machinery for accurate etching of copper have proved unsuccessful mainly due to their complexity and it to reliably simulate “real” PCBs. Therefore these methods have not been widely adopted the industry.
The rapid evolution of 3D printing and additive manufacturing systems during the last few years raises new opportunities. It is more than reasonable to predict that these technologies will produce some innovative solutions in the realm of PCB and printed electronics manufacturing in the next few years. A few 3D printers featuring conductive inks for simple electronics applications have already appeared but a system that can produce a commercial multilayer PCB prototype using some type of 3D printing technology is still lacking, and would fulfill a long-felt need.